Rinaldo serves on the Executive Committee of the board of the Chopra Foundation, and serves on the board of the JUST Capital Foundation on the Executive Committee, Chairman of the Audit Committee and the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Rinaldo has served on the Board of Directors of the $3.5 billion market capitalization men’s clothing company, Tailored Brands, Inc. (formerly Men’s Wearhouse), since its IPO in 1992 and has served on numerous non-profit boards, including the Gorbachev Foundation of North America, the World Business Academy, and the National Peace Academy.

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Mr. Brutoco is an economics and business expert specializing in energy policy, renewable energy, finance, innovation, and the causes for, and adaptation strategies for, climate change. For almost thirty years he has been an international leader in advancing the nature of good corporate governance, corporate accountability, business transparency, and ways that corporations can fulfill their social compact by providing goods and services that the public needs and wants in appropriate, and financially prudent ways. He received a Congressional Commendation to this effect in October, 2010 for his outstanding contributions to the field of corporate responsibility.

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At the age of 25, in 1972, Mr. Brutoco became the youngest attorney to argue before the California Supreme Court in the case of California Public Interest Law Center v. Public Utilities Commission. Brutoco, Founder and Principal of the California Public Interest Law Center, won what was then the largest class action lawsuit in the history of the United States.

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As a merchant banker, Mr. Brutoco ran a start-up and turnaround practice for more than three decades, in which he regularly dealt with forensic accounting, restructuring, operations, and finance. In this work, he was required to serve as an acting CEO, Board Member, Chairman of the Board or in some other senior management function in order to turn his client’s companies around or to guide them successfully past the start-up phase. In this capacity, Mr. Brutoco was appointed by the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. as one of three directors in charge of United Press International (“UPI”) the first time it went into bankruptcy, with the specific task of taking over, running, turning around, and selling the company’s five television stations (in major markets like Chicago) and over 240 radio properties that were held in a UPI subsidiary, and returning the proceeds of those sales to the parent on whose board he sat. Mr. Brutoco successfully kept every one of these stations out of bankruptcy, turned them around and sold them all for a substantial profit within 18 months.

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In the 1980’s, Mr. Brutoco conducted complicated analyses of tax shelters. This work was reviewed by the United States Tax Court, and Mr. Brutoco was nominated for, and approved, as a tax expert for all purposes without restriction in connection with his provision of testimony in complex cases before the tax court as an “Expert” witness. Mr. Brutoco is currently also designated as a financial expert for purposes of reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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As an entrepreneur, Mr. Brutoco has spearheaded several businesses. He is: Principal and Chief Executive Operator of the ShangriLa Group, Inc.; Founder, Executive Chef and CEO of Seven Oaks Ranch, an organic food company, and Founder and CEO of Live Well Brands, Inc., an organic cosmetic manufacturer with distribution in over 3,500 outlets in the United States, which is growing at high compounded annual rates; and, is the Founder, Chief Designer and Chief Technical Officer of H2 Clipper, which has developed a revolutionary, highly-patented, hydrogen-powered dirigible which utilizes advanced aeronautical, clean energy, and materials technologies.

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Co-Founding Channel 100 in 1972, Mr. Brutoco was the COO of the first company in the world to offer pay cable television services, and was the Founder and CEO of Universal Subscription Television in 1978, one of the first companies to offer over-the-air television transmissions of major motion pictures. Also, he was the Chairman of the Board for the two start-up years of an organic probiotic beverage company, KeVita, one of the fastest growing organic probiotic beverage companies in history that sold to Pepsi in January, 2017.

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Additionally, Mr. Brutoco served as the CEO and Chairman of the Dorason Corporation, the sole distributor for 10 years of Mother Teresa’s personally endorsed biographical motion picture, Mother Teresa (1986).

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In 2007 Rinaldo co-authored Freedom from Mid-East Oil, a comprehensive treatment of the energy and climate change landscape. His most recent book is Liftoff: The Rise of the Hydrogen Economy.

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Core areas of Rinaldo’s work include clean energy, climate change analysis and mitigation; sustainable business strategy; values-driven leadership; the development of the human potential at work; global reconstruction; and innovative financial products for Sustainable Responsible Impact Investment (SRI).

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Current Positions:

• President, World Business Academy

• Board Member, JUST Capital

• Principal and CEO, The ShangriLa Group

• Board Member, Tailored Brands, Inc (NYSE), and Audit Committee

• Executive Committee Board Member, Chopra Foundation

• President and Board Member, Omega Point Institute, Inc.

• President and CEO, Seven Oaks Ranch, Inc.

• President and CEO, Live Well Brands, Inc.

 

Books:

• Co–Author, Freedom from Mid-East Oil – a comprehensive treatment of the world’s energy challenges, climate change and solutions for the future of energy. Focused on nuclear power, oil, wind energy and hydrogen (World Business Academy, 2007). ISBN 978-0-9794052-2-8

• Co-Author, Profiles in Power: The Anti-Nuclear Movement and the Dawn of the Solar Age – a college textbook on nuclear energy. (Twayne/Simon & Schuster, 1997) ISBN 0-8057-3879-7

• Principal resource to the authors: Winning the Innovation Game by Denis Waitley and Robert Tucker (Fleming H. Revell Company, 1986) ISBN 0425115313

• Contributing Author, New Paradigms in Business. (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1993) ISBN 0-87477-726-7

• Contributing Author, Birth 2012 and Beyond. (Shift Books, 2012) ISBN 0-9848407-0-0

• Author, Lift Off: The Rise of the Hydrogen Revolution. (Waterfront Digital Press, 2014) ASIN: B00J9NHRZA

 

Keynote / Expert Speaker (Selected):

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Forum of the Central Coast (Feb., 2013) The Hydrogen Future: Transitioning Away from Dirty Power

• Sustainable, Responsible Investing Conference (October, 2012) In conversation with Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres The Practice and Politics of Aligning Business Interests With Human Interests

• Sages and Scientists Symposium (March, 2012) Eight Basic Human Rights, Climate Change and The Global Marshall Plan

• Cortona International Transdisciplinary Conference (September, 2010) The Role of Business at a Time of Conscious Evolution

• Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Center for Sustainable Enterprise, Distinguished Speaker Series (March, 2008) Lemons to Lemonade: Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability as a Sustainable Business Advantage

 

Past Service (Selected):

• Founding Board Member, The Gorbachev Foundation

• Co-Founder and Board Member, State of the World Forum

• Board Member, Center for Earth Concerns

• Founder, California Public Interest Law Center

 

Recognition (Selected):

• Congressional Commendation recognizing Mr. Brutoco for his leadership in business (November, 2010)

• Effie Award for Advertising Effectiveness, The American Marketing Association (1981)

• Ellis Island Medal of Honor, The National Ethnic Coalitions of Organizations (2016)

 

Education:

• Bachelor of Arts, Santa Clara University, 1968, graduated with honors, earning a degree in Economics and also Philosophy

• Juris Doctor, University of California Los Angeles School of Law, 1971, Order of the Coif, and other academic awards